Friday, 28 March 2014

The Trash Pack seems to have been a phenomenal success over
the last couple of years. So I suppose it’s no surprise that we’re now seeing a
few similar products show up in stores – miniature blind-packed figurines,
centred around bizarre themes. The most recent of these is Crashlings – more than 150 figures spread out across five subsets –
Dinosaurs, Insects, Aliens, Monsters and Sea Life.

THE FIGURES

I bought a Crashlings Monsters 4-pack, which had two visible and two
blind-packed figures. The green werewolf (Moon Howler) visible in the packaging
was the strong point for me. Cast in a firm plastic, each character comes with
its own meteor which it can be stored in. The colour of these meteors varies
according to subset; for Monsters, they’re black.

There are also 10-packs and individual meteors available too. These meteor containers can also be used to play a
number of Crashlings-themed games, which are outlined on the back of the
checklist. Some of the meteor halves are also cast in soft rubber, and can be
used as pop caps. Beware though – these ones leave an oily residue in the
packaging.

Moon Howler

Though 150+ characters are advertised on the box, there are actually
only about 50 individual characters to collect, 10 in each subset. The
remaining 110 are made up by recolours of the main figures – some are simple
repaints, others are cast in metallic colours. As might be expected, some are
rarer than others.

Zombie Zoomer

Compounding this further is the fact that there seem to be
some colour variants which aren’t listed on the included checklist. My Moon
Howler is a lime green, similar to glow-in-the-dark shade – that’s how he’s
depicted on the packaging, but I can’t find any trace of this variant on the
checklist. There’s just brown, lavender and metallic red. Crashlings are quite
new, and there’s very little information about them online at this stage – so I
can see these toys starting a lot of rumours and urban myths in the playground
about rarity, value and even existence. From memory, it was a similar situation
with Monsters in My Pocket back in the 1990s.

The four characters I got were Moon Howler (a werewolf;
green version), Bigfoot Dipper (brown version), Franken Star (Frankenstein’s
Monster; metallic green version) and Zombie Zoomer (brown version). Yep, pretty
much all the characters have pun names related to the cosmos. Moon Howler is
fantastic, Bigfoot Dipper is pretty ordinary, Zombie Zoomer is okay and Franken
Star would be cool if he wasn’t metallic green. He may be “rare”, but I’ve
never really enjoyed these single colour variants, unless it was glow in the
dark. I may sell him off via eBay.

Franken Star

PAINT

As might be expected, paint apps tend towards being a little
sloppy. That’s okay for this type of toy; they’re tiny and cheap.

Bigfoot Dipper

OVERALL

Crashlings are a cool idea – I loved blind-bagged stuff and
miniature figures, so it’s always cool to see another variation on this theme. There
are some cool ideas in series 1, but I think they may have stretched themselves
slightly too thin by including so many colour variants and themes within in the
one series. A tighter focus in future will serve them well, I think. I’m
curious to see what series 2 brings. Include some glow in the dark characters
and Wicked Cool Toys could have a real hit on their hands!

Friday, 21 March 2014

Typically, my Transformers preferences lean toward vehicles.
Imaginary or “realistic”, it doesn’t matter. I’m more ambivalent to
Transformers that change into animals (except dinosaurs) and insects. But every
now and then one will catch my eye. Kickback is one such character – his bot
mode looks incredibly cool, and his alt mode isn’t too shabby either. Best of
all, he is purple – though I don’t much care for the colour in real life, it
always looks particularly cool on Decepticons.

My local Target was clearing out Generations figures for $16 each – presumably due to the new movie
on the way – so after having my eye on Kickback for some months, it was time to
pull the trigger on the purchase. Is he a fitting addition to my growing
Transformers collection? Read on to see.

SCULPT AND
ARTICULATION

Even in bot mode, Kickback looks quite insect-like. His
long, stalky limbs and his clawed hands make him look less humanoid than many
Transformers, which I feel is a good thing. They’re robots after all – they
don’t need to have “human” features at all, in theory. On the negative side, he
has a light-piped “eye”, but it seems to have been painted over, blocking the
effect. Still, he’s an excellent looking robot.

His alt mode -- a Cybertronian Insect that looks a lot like a grasshopper -- by comparison, is okay but not great. I feel
it looks better on the box than in real life. His arms join together to create
the “tail” of the insect, and the join on mine is a little fragile. So it’s
quite easy to pop it open, rendering you with a dismembered-looking bug.

Articulation-wise on the main body, we’re looking at:

*ball-jointed head

*swivel-hinged shoulders

*ball-jointed elbows

*cut wrists

*ball-jointed hips

*swivel thighs

*hinged knees

*ball jointed ankles

The arms on his back have two joints as well – a balljoint
where they connect to the back and a hinge in their middle.

The transformation process is one of the most convoluted
I’ve seen. The first time I attempted it, I raced ahead a little, got a couple
of steps wrong in subtle ways, and the whole thing just looked a little off as
a result. But I gave it another try, and fortunately it worked properly then
(though I did pop off a balljointed leg in the process). The instructions are
in that horrible black, white and purple colour scheme again, making things
needlessly difficult. They need to either include words and/or use properly
coloured illustrations/photos.

One of my co-workers commented that he thought Kickback looked
a bit fragile, and though I argued the point at the time, I’m now inclined to
agree. I would be hesitant giving this to a kid for rough play – but hey, how
many kids are actually buying this particular Transformers series?

PAINT

The paint on Kickback is probably the best I’ve seen of the
three Generations figures I’ve picked
up. Most of him is moulded in the appropriate colours, but the areas with paint
are quite clean and neat. The others were all a bit sloppy and fuzzy at the
edges, but there’s a lot less of that here.

ACCESSORIES

Kickback comes with a disc-shooter. Despite the stern
warning on the back to not aim it at people’s eyes (as there should be), it
seems to only shoot a couple of centimetres. It’s an okay gun, but it’s far too
big and makes him overbalance unless you’re careful. So I’ll probably display
him without it most of the time.

OVERALL

As I’ve said in my previous two Transformers: Generations reviews, Hasbro has stumbled onto a good
thing with these toys – and this time, the price was definitely right! If they
were $16 all the time I’d probably buy the whole range. Though of course,
that’s wishful thinking.

I’m still looking to pick up a Skywarp (another purple
Decepticon!) and Scoop, though time will tell whether we actually see that wave
get released in Australia. With these ones on clearance at Target, and some of
them having been round for quite a while, I’m nursing some doubts about it. But
hope springs eternal.

Sunday, 16 March 2014

The 1980s are one of my favourite eras of pop culture,
having birthed many of the pop culture icons I hold so dear today, such as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, Predator, RoboCop and The Transformers.

As a result, I’m quite a fan of a lot of pop music from the
era too. Not in an ironic way either – I genuinely love the songs listed here. Some
of you will be familiar with, some you won’t. Some you’ll like, some you’ll
think are utter garbage. Such is the nature of compiling these lists. Feel free
to leave comments below, with your own preferences.

And now, in no particular order, I present 80 of my
favourite pop songs from the 1980s!

Saturday, 15 March 2014

As my Australian readers will probably already know, The Lego Movie has been postponed until
April over here (boo!). I won’t deny that I’ve been jealous of my international
brethren. However, the delay hasn’t stopped most of the movie tie-in sets being
released already, which means I can experience the movie vicariously.

As with every Lego theme worth its salt, there’s a broad
spectrum of price ranges – from the cheap to the ultra-expensive. However, the
mid-range sets are probably the most interesting. Why? Well, the main gimmick
with the mid-range sets is that they’re standard Lego sets…but they can also
change into something more bizarre, usually some sort of a flying machine. In
this case, a castle’s gate morphs into a twin-barrelled flying machine, resembling
a medieval Phantom Menace podracer.

Minifigures

This set comes with three minifigures – Sir Stackabrick, Gallant
Guard and Sharon Shoehorn (an actress on the in-universe TV show Where Are My Pants?). The actress is the
only figure with two faces – one looking happy, and the other one for looking
distressed when she’s abducted by one of Lord Business’ Micromanagers.

Sir Stackabrick

Gallant Guard

I know nothing about their personalities yet, but they’re
nicely made, standard minifigures that will fit in easily alongside your Castle or City theme figures, and that’s what I wanted them for.

Though it’s not technically a minifigure, I’ll include the
Micromanager here – I assume it’s some sort of evil minion, but I don’t know
much else at this stage. It’s a black box, with two rubber wheels (which roll)
and a grabby claw-hand. Seeing the movie may change my mind, but I’m a little
underwhelmed with it at first glance. It’s
a little too featureless.

Sharon Shoehorn

Micromanager

Build

I haven’t really built anything since Lord Vampyre’s Castle over Christmas, so perhaps I’m a little out
of shape, but I was quite taken aback at how long it took me – close to an hour
and a half, I’d say.

The gate is surprisingly complex, though it definitely works
to the advantage of the kit. There are lots of cool little details such as the
flags on the ramparts, the skull in the tower and the vines hanging above the
torches. And of course, a working catapault is always fun for the kids, if neither here nor there for me.

Its generic "Castle-y" nature is possibly its biggest strength. Add a couple more elements – like the tree from the Monster Fighters Werewolf set, some dim
lighting and a minifigure ghost, and you’ve transformed the whole thing into a
whole new environment too.

Colour scheme-wise, it fits with the Castle theme that was released in 2013 – specifically, the “good”
faction, the Lion Knights.

As for the alt mode, it was fun to build – but I don’t love
how it looks. The 2-in-1 idea is cool (even though when I was a kid, this was a
standard thing) is a good one, but I don’t think this set is the best example
of it. The flying machine mode is entertaining, but if I didn’t want this as a
castle front I’d probably be a little disappointed. The other sets in this
range, such as the Ice Cream Truck or Recycling Truck look much better from a
purely toyetic perspective, and their alt modes are definitely cooler, if not
quite up my alley. Though if I collected City,
I’d be all over those bad boys.

Overall

Recently I realised that I had enough minifigures to create
a Dungeons and Dragons-style party of
four adventurers – the Barbarian, Elf Ranger, Paladin and Wizard. But
adventurers need a place to adventure in. I have the City of Atlantis, of
course, but it would be nice to have something along the lines of a more
traditional castle or dungeon. This set looked like as good a starting point as
any!

So I think this is a simple, pretty cool Castle set. The only real downside is
the price – for $35, I think it’s a little higher than it should be. Get it to
$29, and I think I’d be even more satisfied, and might have even bought two. I suspect that the slightly raised
price is to do with the third minifigure – and the “2 sets in one” gimmick.*

As for the wider Lego Movie
range? I have mixed feelings. I may change my mind once I see some of them
in action in the movie, but I’m not in love with this theme. Of course, I said
that about Monster Fighters, and look
where that got me!

*Oddly enough, I think
it may also be experiencing the “license tax” that affects themes such as Super
Heroes, Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit et al. Warner Bros are the ones who
actually produced and distributed the movie, so the price may be slightly
higher to make sure that they get their cut too? But this is only speculation
on my part.

Wednesday, 12 March 2014

In my previous Micro-Changers review, I mentioned that
Collection 4 was the first set I’d seen in Australia…or at least, in Sydney.
But lo and behold, I came across a few Collection 3 bags in a local Big W
shortly after publishing that article. Swiftly consulting OAFE’s decoder, I decided
to pass on them – Nemesis Prime looked cool, but I knew his vehicle mode would
be rubbish. And Sharkticons have just never grabbed me in the way they do some
of my friends. But looking scanning over the list, I also spied the Preview Series from 2012 – a set of six
Decepticons, released as a teaser. Collection Zero, if you will.

“No chance of finding them,” I thought to myself. “They came
out almost two years ago, and they would have been some kind of American
exclusive.”

Well, I was in for a big shock – the next department store I
walked into had them and they were only $2AUD each. Sometimes God will send you
a pick-me-up in the most obscure ways.

I ended up buying three, in total – Galvatron, Scorponok and
Sunstorm. Some will ask why I didn’t buy the other three (Spinister, Waspinator
and Crankstart) when I could have had them all for a mere $12, but it was
mostly came down to their designs just not grabbing me as much. I just don’t
have the completist bug as severely as I used to.

So, how do these bad boys compare to collection four?

THE BUILDS

Galvatron has a
great base body, and I like his lavender colour. However, his backpack is quite
clunky, and its base attachment spent a lot of time popping off when I first
put him together. His arms are also a little wonkier than I'd like -- they don't sit up too well.

His alt mode is okay – in theory. It’s a big
artillery-looking cannon, much as he had back in ye olden days of the G1
cartoon. Unfortunately, you cannot get it to stand upright. It’s very
front-heavy and just keeps toppling over. Hence the absence of a photo.

Verdict: Least
favourite of the three I picked up, but he’s still a pretty cool bot.

Sunstorm is what
we’ve heard – bot mode cool, alt mode not so much. While the plane definitely
works better than the cars we saw in collection four, it doesn’t work quite as
well as I’d hoped – the waist is fairly wonky. Sandstorm’s helicopter remains
my favourite flying alt mode at this time.

He also comes with what I assume is some kind of gun. It’s
pretty bizarre, and doesn’t look like a gun in the conventional sense, but I still
like it.

Verdict: Possibly
my favourite of the three I picked up. Sunstorms’ green counterpart Acid Wing
(Acid Storm) is in the mail from eBay at the moment, and it will be cool seeing
them displayed together.

Scorponok is a
really cool bot design. Unfortunately, his claws were actually quite difficult
to fit onto the Kreon arms, and you can see the white stress marks from where I
had to essentially force them on. I was worried they’d either break or just pop
straight off again. However, now that he’s together I’m quite pleased with him
– his transparent purple claws are surprisingly menacing for such a cutesy
design.

The alt mode? Sigh…I’m sounding like a broken record here,
but again I find myself being fairly unimpressed with it. I think the cars are
more visually appealing, even if they don’t work as well.

Verdict: Awesome
bot mode. Ordinary alt mode. Still one of the best bot TF Kreons, once you get him
assembled. Easily the best colour scheme of the TF Kreons I currently own – you
can’t go wrong with green and purple.

PAINT

Paint is noticeably better on this series than on Collection
Four. Though it doesn’t use intricate tampos in the same way, they don’t suffer
as a result of simplicity – and I’d happily sacrifice additional detail for
better overall paint execution. I assume we’ll see a Collection Five soon
enough, so we’ll see how that one goes.

OVERALL

Though I may sound underwhelmed above, I’ve actually had a
lot of fun playing them since I bought them. I don’t regret buying them –
they’re cutesy and a lot of fun just to have lying around the place. Much like their later counterparts, these Micro-Changers are
cute and endearing in bot mode, but pretty ordinary in their alt mode.
Obviously I enjoyed them enough to have bought more than my initial purchase
from collection four, but I certainly don’t see myself spending much more on
the line. Maybe the odd character, if they really
grab me.

But on related news, I am excited for Kre-O’s Dungeons and Dragons blind bags. While collection one isn’t
grabbing me, I think it’s a really cool concept and am looking forward to
seeing what future ranges bring. DnD doesn’t get a lot of merchandising love
outside of core materials, so it’s nice to see it turning up in this format.

Tuesday, 11 March 2014

Well, the new series of Lego Minifigures is out, and it’s
directly tied to the forthcoming movie (yes, it’s out already overseas, I
know…). I’ve picked up five so far, and will possibly get a couple more.
Let’s kick it off!

The ones I’ve bought

﻿

Emmet's regular face

Emmet (voiced by
Chris Pratt)is the main character
of the film. Apparently an ordinary minifigure who’s mistaken for a Master
Builder (what this entails will presumably be revealed in the film), he's
dressed in construction gear, and would easily fit in with a construction or
mining related set from City. His
standard face is him with a big goofy smile that’s quite reminiscent of the
1980s-1990s minifigure faces, before they started getting a little more
sophisticated in their printing technique. I’d wager this resemblance is
entirely intentional. His alternate face depicts him with his eyes shut and
laughing…unfortunately it has the effect of making him look like a slightly
racist anime caricature. Emmet also comes with an Octan pamphlet or magazine.
It depicts a minifigure being eaten by a Lego shark, which gave me a giggle.

Emmet is easy to get mixed up with the Bad Cop/Good Cop, as
their accessories both feel quite familiar. So you’re best to check for the absence of a set of soft handcuffs in
the bag, once you’ve found a helmet and magazine/phone tile.

Wyldstyle (voiced
by Elizabeth Banks) seems to be wearing a goth-style outfit [edit: apparently
it’s Wild West-themed] – a corset and skirt, different to the skater-girl style
that she’s been seen wearing in promotional material prior to now. She also
comes with the same folding fan that the Kimono Girl (series 4) and the
Flamenco Dancer (series 6). She’s neither here nor there as a figure, but I
picked her up as she is one of the main characters. Given her seemingly
intentionally “edgy” design, she’ll either be quite endearing or incredibly
annoying. Time will tell, but I generally like Elizabeth Banks so I’m hoping
for good things.

Good Cop/Bad Cop (voiced
by Liam Neeson) seems to be one of the most readily available characters in the
range. For the most part, he’s a standard looking highway patrolman, who’d look
right at home in the City theme.
However, turn his face around and you’ll find that a crudely drawn smiley face
has been drawn on the back of his head – just like a child would draw.
Presumably this will be explained at some point during the film itself. Though
I’m sure it’s meant to be cutesy, it actually reminds me of the promotional
artwork for The Dark Knight, which
was styled to look as though the Joker had scrawled all over it. It's a little creepy.

Regular, cool cop face

He comes with a set of handcuffs, and a mobile phone styled
to look like an iPhone. Intentional or not, this is a nice reference to Neeson’s
character in the Taken series.

Disturbing nightmare face

Velma Staplebot is
not really my sort of figure, though the parts could well be useful for
creating some sort of office manager in a City
setting. I actually thought she was Emmet when I was checking the bags,
otherwise I probably would have passed on her. She comes with a clipboard which
notes something about “Taco Tuesday”…I assume this will become clear in the
film.

Panda Guy is a
cool concept, and one of the characters I was most excited for. But he has
some sloppy paint apps on his headpiece and matching panda baby (teddy?) that undermine my enjoyment a little. Combine this with
the lower-quality leg pieces they’ve been using in some of the minifigures
series and I’m no longer so thrilled. Granted, I may feel differently after I
see the film.

The Others

Calamity Drone ranks
as my least favourite of the series…I don’t really want a robot woman from the
Old West.

Gail the Construction
Worker looks cool, and according to Brickipedia has the distinction of
being the first female minifigure in a construction uniform. I suspect she’ll
be endearing in the film too.

“Where Are My Pants?”
Guy looks pretty funny. But I suspect his main value will be in his
Hawaiian shirt piece...combine him the head of Frank Rock from Monster Fighters, and you have Bruce
Campbell’s character from Burn Notice.

President Business (voiced
by Will Ferrell) is the big bad of The
Lego Movie. Apparently he’s trying to undermine the world of Lego by gluing
all the pieces of the Lego world together. As a minifigure, he’s a little so-so
to look at, but his square headpiece is interesting. Though I’m not really
fussed on him, I may pick him up anyway – seems like it makes sense to have a
figure of the lead villain. He comes with an Octan coffee cup.

Wiley Fusebot is
bizarre, resembling a robot Davy Crockett. I like the idea of a regular Davy Crockett minifigure, and this guy would let you make one quite easily. So I may
yet get one – but this is one that I’ll probably need to see in action in the
film first.

Abraham Lincoln is
apparently one of the Master Builders in the film. He looks cool, but I just
can’t quite commit to buy. I’m sure he’ll be popular in America, though. I feel
similarly about William Shakespeare
– he’ll be big in the UK, no doubt, and lots of English teachers will probably
have this guy on their staffroom desk.

Marsha, Queen of the Mermaids
– we’ve already had a mermaid reasonably recently, but this one is a bit
distinct from the one in series 8, thanks to different colouring. This
colouration makes her look like Mermaid Barbie or something – cool for my wife,
not so much for me.

Taco Tuesday Guy veers
into slightly racially insensitive territory again, similar to the Island Warrior in Series 11, but he’s quite entertaining. However, I already have the
Maraca Man from series 2, so I’ll pass.

Mrs. Scratchen-Post is
sort of amusing as a cat lady, but I think she followed too soon after the Grandma from
series 11. I’ll pass.

Larry the Barista will
fit well into a City collection. But I don't know where he'd fit in my collection, so it's a no for the time being.

The Verdict

Now, why don’t I think I’ll collect the set? Well, there’s a
lot of familiar ground trodden over from previous series – particularly with a
cat lady and mermaid both seeing release relatively recently. There are no direct
repeats, but the stuff I like I already have, and the stuff I don’t I didn’t
want anyway.

To be fair, a lot of the repeated stuff is probably because
the movie will introduce a whole new group of fans to minifigure collecting. It
is good that newcomers will have access to lookalikes of some of the earlier
characters – if they do this in future series, hopefully I’ll be able to get hold
of a series 1-esque Ninja – but for the moment I’m happy to sit it out.
Granted, this may change after I see the movie and get to know some of the
characters. The Lego Movie is on my must-see list for 2014!

Overall verdict? Cool for new collectors, but less so for
those of us who have been collecting minifigures for a bit longer.

Friday, 7 March 2014

Predator 2 is a
movie that’s often unfairly maligned. Yes, it was always going to be hard to
live up to the original, and the sequel makes quite a few questionable choices,
but I still have soft spot for it, possibly because I saw it before I saw the
original.

Anyway, you’ll no doubt remember the sequence near the end
where Danny Glover’s character finds himself aboard the Predator’s ship, and
suddenly surrounded by a whole group of Predators, who are presumably the City
Hunter’s buddies – popularly known as the “Lost Predators” or "Lost Tribe". You only get a very
short glimpse of each of them before they go back to being invisible, but they
still made quite an impression on fans.

Among them was the “Borg Predator”– his chest armour is kind
of futuristic and cyberpunk-looking, in comparison to the more primitive/tribal
stylings that we typically expect from Predators. Also, his skin was
green-tinged. But if you don’t remember him specifically from his 5 seconds of
film time, the picture on the left is a behind-the-scenes shot, courtesy of www.avp.wikia.comNECA released this guy back in 2012 as part of series 6,
somewhat confusingly labelling him as the “Lost Predator”, which I assume is to do with Star Trek-related copyright issues. Almost two years later, they’re
revisiting him with a somewhat different version – the Battle Armor Lost
Predator.

SCULPT AND
ARTICULATION

Any of us who played with toys as a kid, or have collected
them as adults are familiar with bizarre action figure..."variations". A toy company takes a
character that we’re familiar with, but releases them dressed in costumes or
packaged with accessories that have no connection with the source material.
Batman and Spider-Man are two of the most serious offenders, but very few
toylines are immune. As another example, in early 1990s there were
approximately 392730397509 different versions of the four Ninja Turtles.

Most of these figures are terrible. But every now and then,
one of these variants ends up being really cool. And the Battle Armor Lost
Predator is definitely cool.

So, let’s get down to brass tacks. In the film, Lost/Borg
Predator is apparently rocking his casual gear, but here, he means business.
His helmet is unlike any other Predator we’ve seen thus far – it’s quite
detailed, looking like some kind of robot Predator skull. The eyeslit is painted
red, giving a laser-esque/Cyclops look.

There are a number of pieces that are definitely new. The
first is obviously the head. The helmet looks to be a separate piece that’s
glued down onto a hollowed-out Predator head, but I’m not sure whether it’s
based on the original version of this guy, or simply one they’ve come up with
for the occasion.

His belt is also new, incorporating a sheath for the sword,
which extends up the Predator’s back. The sheath is cast in a thin but hard
plastic, which I think looks and works better than soft plastic would have in
this case.

Unusually, he has no wrist-mounted claws, and his
plasma-caster is on his right shoulder. The plasma-caster isn’t a removable
piece – it’s attached to the chest plate. It follows a similar aesthetic to the
helmet, and it has three wires hanging on the side, complementing the wires on
his chest plater.

Both his hands are sculpted closed, so his sword and
smart-disc can be held in either hand.

Close-up of the backpack and open plasma-caster.

Articulation is what we’ve come to expect from
NECA’s Predators:

*ball-jointed neck

*swivel-hinged shoulders

*swivel-hinged elbows

*ball-jointed wrists

*ball-jointed waist

*ball-jointed hips

*double-hinged knees

*ball-jointed ankles

Additionally, the plasma-caster’s arm is ball-jointed in two
spots – where it joins to the backpack and where it joins to the gun itself. The plasma-caster backpack restricts the right shoulder to a
small degree, but the main issue is the elbows. The bracers have wires sculpted
onto them around the elbow area, and the bend is quite restricted as a result.

It’s certainly not screen accurate, but it looks like it
could be – the overall effect is great. He moves well, and looks good. I really
like the Kenner-style Predators of series 10, but this guy is much more “realistic”, which makes him much easier to imagine in the world of the movies. The Kenner Preds are a little more Dark Horse comic-looking, if you know what I mean (and if you like that look, you'll probably enjoy the upcoming series 12 and 13). ACCESSORIES

This guy comes with two accessories. The first is a massive sword, which
more than makes up for the lack of wrist blades. It’s about 5” long, which is
far too long to be practical – but totally awesome. The blade is primarily
black, with a light silver drybrush and red edging.

The other accessory is an
AvP-style smartdisc, with extended blades. If you look closely, you’ll also
notice there’s also a closed one sculpted onto the front of his belt. It’s a
nice little touch. The main body is painted in a metallic blue to match the
rest of his armour. It fits in either hand, but it’s a little prone to popping
out.

PAINT

His primary skin colour is the usual Predator beige-y, with
the secondary skin colour being a dark green. Interspersed among it are a
number of small red and black dots. It’s unusual colouring, but it looks great!

There are a few issues with slop around various points. Some
silver on the backpack, some black on the toe claws – and as we’ve come to
expect, the netting. But it’s not worth getting upset about. I’d just suggest
that you take a close look at the figure in the store before you go through
with the purchase. Poe Ghostal mentioned that the chest armour doesn’t seem to
be as well-painted as the original release of this guy, but wasn’t sure if it
was a deliberate choice on NECA’s part or a QC issue.I didn’t look too closely at the others on
the shelf when I bought mine, so I can’t really comment myself.

OVERALL

Some will definitely question the necessity of this figure – the original
was great, and this look for the character doesn’t really have a canon
precedent. But my verdict? It may not be essential, but the Battle
Armor Lost Predator is a fantastic figure. He’s distinct enough to serve as a
separate character, and just plain looks cool. I’ve bought four NECA Predators
since August last year, and they just keep getting better and better. 2013 was
a great year for the Predators line,
and if this guy is any indication, 2014 will be too!